LONDON — Impatiently waiting their turn outside the Olympic Park Basketball Arena for a scheduled hour-long practice Wednesday — it was to be their first trip inside the main venue — the Canadian women's basketball team experienced what could best be described as one of those collective epiphany moments.

"When the doors flew open,'' recalled coach Allison McNeill, "they didn't prepare anything, but it was just like'' — she lifted her hands in a palms-upraised gesture of divine welcoming you see often in Italian renaissance oils — "'Waaaahhhhhhhhhh!'

"Like 'We are HERE!

"Almost like that angels' sound, you know? Like the angels had just come down from heaven. I was in the back. Our coaching staff was laughing so hard I didn't think we could do practice. It was funny. It was cute.''

Unscripted. In unison. Imagine. A celestial choir in shorts and Nikes.

There was in that impromptu chorus of the heavenly hosts the pinch-me realization that, yes, they really were here. In London. For the 2012 Games.

How far they'd come. How late they'd left it.

But what an opportunity they've given themselves.

By toppling Japan 71-63 in Ankara, Turkey only 25 days ago in their no-wiggle-room final lifeline, Canada nailed down the final Olympic women's hoops qualifying spot. It was a needed pick-me-up mere days after they squandered the opportunity to book passage to London against the Croatians. And on Canada Day, no less.

Saturday morning here, the last-ditch underdogs will open their Olympic campaign against Russia. They're unfancied, again. No matter. This is, never forget, just the fourth Canadian women's team in 36 years to qualify and play at this tournament.

"Honestly,'' said McNeill, "I think we can upset any of them [in the group] if we played on the right day at the right time. Basketball's like that, right? We've talked about trying to hold that momentum and how we played and visualizing and we've actually gone back and watched some film, less on our opponents but more on ourselves, trying to keep that fresh in our memory.

"It's only what . . . two, two-and-a-half weeks since then? We had a little time off and came back and played a good scrimmage against Czech Republic. We played very well. We won but it was a scrimmage game so I don't think that's relevant. But we've just sort of been staying on that high and carrying that through.''

McNeill sounds like that favourite teacher that inspired you, or the one you wish you had for homeroom. She coaches grade school kids when she's not at her part-time gig taking teams to the Olympics and she readily admits that for years her fondest hope was to tutor players well enough to get them into the Games, not to be their coach AT the Games.

"We facilitate their experience. For me, the best thing to date in my coaching career is when we're successful and I see their faces. Like, after we qualified, we just stared at them. I've never seen such euphoria on people's faces in my life. I mean, I've seen happy people. When they have their children, I mean that's pretty special . . . but these girls, they were just so . . .

"It's been a journey and it's been a tough one. It's darned hard to get here. It's a bit emotional. We've worked hard for 10 years, our staff, to get here. We're not expected to win a medal, but we're certainly going to try.''

Despite a relatively early tip-off time Saturday, O'Neill allowed — in fact, encouraged — her players to march in the opening ceremony (and, remember, those things tend to drag on longer than the Oscars).

"We're just walking in and right out again. But I want them to have that experience. They need to be able to look back. How do you inspire a generation if you can't look back and tell them how it felt to walk in: 'I don't know, I wasn't there.'

"We're going to have that feeling and I still trust that my team can play well. I think there's something about handling distractions, being able to live the life and be a great athlete. Maybe some people feel [the opposite], but I'm not one of those coaches. I don't think you have to be in your room, stressing about basketball 24/7. I think it's unhealthy.''

Against the Russians, McNeill expects her team to be scrappy, competitive, intense.

"We're not,'' she stressed, "going to change anything. I don't feel like we have Five-Ring Fever. We're not panicking, doing something new. What got us this far, it's how we play.''

She resisted the temptation to lift her hands, palms upraised, in an act of divine welcoming, and then break into a one-woman angelic chorus. Her smile at the remembering was enough.

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